Jamaica Gleaner / Gospel music has in many ways influenced other forms of music and vice versa, including reggae, dancehall and alternative, which has resulted in a relationship between the genres known as contemporary gospel. However, it is a genre that is often times left out.

In a recent Gleaner Editors’ Forum, preceding the RJRGLEANER Communications Group-sponsored Kingston Music Week (KMW), it was mentioned that the genre of contemporary gospel does have a place within the entire celebration of the city as a creative hub with a focus on music production, despite the difference in audiences.

Speaking at the forum, entertainer/promoter Patrick ‘Tony Rebel’ Barrett said that the KMW is a great opportunity for gospel artistes and organisations to come on board.

However, it was also noted that all musical forms had their defined or high seasons. Gospel music events, in particular, are normally executed at the end of the year into the month of January; for example, Genesis, which does not coincide with the KMW schedule, which is usually the first week of December.

“It is twofold. What we have done to have control over what happens in the week, is to develop a series of events so that we are not only promoting events of promoters or people who are doing events. Sometimes what we have to do is encourage promoters to do events during this period,” Dr Dennis Howard, general manager of Radio Service at RJRGLEANER Communications Group, said.

The next step to include contemporary gospel will then be to persuade persons within the gospel music sector to host events that focus on the genre, the history, diversity and role of it within the creative hub. There have been efforts by the organisers of KMW to create a rapport between the week-long celebration and significance of contemporary gospel without any conflict of interest, but it has not yet been formalised.

CEO of Glory Music Tommy Cowan said, “In spite of where we are, whether gospel or dancehall music, Jamaican people are religious and the absence of the genre is a result of an oversight somewhere. I think it may be how it is internally organised, although I can’t speak for anyone; maybe the persons did not look at the area and its market to adapt it in the right way.”

NO CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Cowan is fascinated by the idea of being a part of the line-up of events and does not think it is a conflict of interest. He expressed interest in the promotion and execution of an event that would not only capture the attention of Christians, but the same secular market that is attracted to other proceedings of KMW. He also remembers being approached in earlier years to do a gospel event, but did not find a position for it at the time.

“We would have needed to break out the events more individually to give it its own identity so that people could understand it is a gospel event, and by doing so, draw the secular market as well,” Cowan said.

“Gospel music is a vibrant genre, if not more vibrant in many ways that even young people can enjoy events like Fun in the Son. The secular crowds that attend nowadays gospel concerts are just as entertained as Christians. In fact, 30 per cent is from the secular world that attend through curiosity and to enjoy themselves,” he added.

He suggested that since KMW is a celebration that gives thanks to the contribution of music, contemporary gospel could play a part by way of looking at the history of Kingston, what it has provided to the culture and world with a focus on Kingston’s historic churches as landmarks. Cowan is looking forward to the 2018 execution of KMW to possibly bring his ideas to life as part of the celebration.

“I would be so happy to sit down with the organisers as part of the committee to determine how we deal with it, because people in gospel understand gospel, we would understand how to market it, how it should be approached and executed to stage it, as part of a week that highlights music and the contribution of the genres, in Kingston,” he added.

san fernando Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley prayed with members of the Muslim community and distributed zakat (charity) to the needy as he celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr at two masjids in San Fernando yesterday. He attended the Eid services on an invitation from Minister of Local Government Kazim Hosein, who is also referred to as a…

gasparillo The mother of a disabled child was shot dead inside her apartment in Gasparillo yesterday. Ornella Philips, 28, was shot once in the chest. Her body was discovered lying in the living room around 10 a.m. The country’s murder toll now stands at 243. Her eight-year-old daughter, Kayla, has cerebral palsy and depends…

ISTANBUL (AP): Turkish police stopped activists for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex rights from gathering in large numbers for an LGBT Pride event in Istanbul yesterday, but smaller groups made impromptu press statements, defying a ban imposed by the governor. Organisers of the 2017 Istanbul LGBTI+ Pride had vowed to march in central Taksim…

LONDON (AP): The list of high-rise apartment towers in Britain that have failed fire-safety tests grew to 60, officials said yesterday, revealing the mounting challenge the government faces in the aftermath of London’s Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. All of the buildings for which external cladding samples were so far submitted failed combustibility tests, Communities Secretary…

BAHAWALPUR (AP): Alerted by an announcement over a mosque’s loudspeaker that an overturned tanker truck had sprung a leak, scores of villagers raced to the scene with fuel containers yesterday to gather the oil. Then the wreck exploded, engulfing people in flames as they screamed in terror. At least 153 men, women and children were…

WASHINGTON (AP): Making a final push, United States President Donald Trump said he doesn’t think congressional Republicans are “that far off” on a health overhaul to replace “the dead carcass of Obamacare”. Expressing frustration, he complained about “the level of hostility” in government and wondered why both parties can’t work together on the Senate bill…

While reliving the horrors experienced by so many families after another spate of bizarre violence across the country last week, I couldn’t help but picture Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett’s rictus grin plastered on television screens while the elderly and even suckling babes were being gruesomely slaughtered inside their homes. While the rest of us were…

RJR News / The Police High Command has highlighted the lack of public order in Montego Bay as one of the major problems to be addressed in the fight against crime in that city. “We recognise that the traffic congestion, the vending, the disorder in the town; we will have to take a far…

Trinidad Express / NEW YORK (AP) — A band of misfits known as the Goonies, a sinking ship, some baseball ghosts and the unrelenting New York cop John McClane are being added to the prestigious National Film Registry. The Library of Congress announced Wednesday that the films “The Goonies,” ”Titanic,” ”Field of Dreams” and “Die…

Share this:

Trinidad Express / A couple was arrested after police allegedly found more than $200,000 at their home on Tuesday. The 51 year old man and his 53 year old wife were arrested at the home at Thompson Road, Palmiste, Longdenville by officers of the Couva CID. Police said that investigations into a break in at…

Share this:

Trinidad Express / INFANT Soriah Martin did not die from a fall but from a bullet fired by a soldier. The soldier pulled the gun and fired on a man who as holding the child. Both were wounded. The child, who would have turned two next month, was shot in her abdomen. Gregory Harracksingh, 65,…

Share this:

Trinidad Express / No child should be left feeling unwanted on Christmas Day. And Under the Peepal Tree Ashram, a Hindu organisation, has proved that there are no barriers in religion to making a child happy. For almost three decades the Aranguez-based organisation has been visiting the St Mary’s Children’s Home in Tacarigua bringing Christmas…

Trinidad Express / Petit Trou is the last village a visitor must travel through to get to Toco’s Atlantic and Caribbean coastlines. Few even know the village exists because by the time you get there, your only thought is to pass it fast to reach the beach. However, if you were to turn into the…

MiamiHerald / Less than halfway through Florida’s lucrative stone crab season, traps are drying up, dealing another blow to a fishing industry still recovering from a beating delivered by a brutal Hurricane Irma. “Everybody’s feeling it,” said Walter Flores, owner of the Golden Rule Seafood in Palmetto Bay, which has been selling and serving stone…

MiamiHerald / For all you space buffs, many factors are falling in your favor Wednesday night if viewing the annual December Geminid meteor shower is on the agenda. South Florida skies are forecast to remain clear and cool into Friday, the National Weather Service says. The annual Leonid meteor shower made stardust memories above South…

Jamaica Gleaner / The Economic Growth Council (EGC) will be looking to effect immediate economic expansion with three primary veins of focus to deliver 2.3 per cent growth by next year, says the newly appointed executive director of the council Aubyn Hill. Hill’s appointment was made public by Prime Minister Andrew Holness during a press conference…

Share this:

Jamaica Gleaner / The Privy Council has overturned a decision by Jamaica’s appeal court that GraceKennedy two decades ago stole Paymaster’s business plan and used it as the model on which it establish its own bill-payment firm, BillExpress. “The board is persuaded that the Court of Appeal erred in overturning (Justice Roy) Jones’ conclusions on…

MiamiHerald / Less than halfway through Florida’s lucrative stone crab season, traps are drying up, dealing another blow to a fishing industry still recovering from a beating delivered by a brutal Hurricane Irma. “Everybody’s feeling it,” said Walter Flores, owner of the Golden Rule Seafood in Palmetto Bay, which has been selling and serving stone…

MiamiHerald / For all you space buffs, many factors are falling in your favor Wednesday night if viewing the annual December Geminid meteor shower is on the agenda. South Florida skies are forecast to remain clear and cool into Friday, the National Weather Service says. The annual Leonid meteor shower made stardust memories above South…

Share this:

Jamaica Gleaner / The National Works Agency (NWA) is advising extreme caution along some roads in Trelawny. Heavy rains had left some roads impassable, last evening. The NWA said the road between Duncans and Clarke’s Town at Long Pond was impassable. It also said the road to Albert Town was flooded at Level Bottom. Jackson Town…

Share this:

Jamaica Gleaner / The Justice Ministry is to outline today the process the government will use to pay out millions of dollars in compensation to victims and their families of the 2010 police-military operation in West Kingston. The details are to be disclosed during a press conference at 2 o’clock this afternoon. Justice Minister Delroy…

Jamaica Gleaner / The Spanish Town link road and Windsor Road intersection in St Catherine will once again be managed by traffic signals when the National Works Agency (NWA) recommissions the lights today. The lights have not been working for more than a year after some 400 meters of cable were stolen. NWA Customer Services and…

MiamiHerald / The type of weather on the night March 13, 2016, is the reason people want to live in the Keys. The temperature was around 70 degrees, not a hint of humidity and a field of bright, shining stars occupied the clear, dark sky. “It was beautiful out. I toyed with the idea of…

Jamaica Information / Minister of Health, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, addresses a ceremony for the reopening of the renovated Balaclava Health Centre in St. Elizabeth on Thursday, December 7. + – Photo: Claudia Gardner Minister of Health, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, addresses a ceremony for the reopening of the renovated Balaclava Health Centre…